Salfer & Ulmen, Butchers

Before there was Weber Meats, there was Salfer & Ulmen. This butcher shop popped up in Cuba City during the height of the mining boom in 1906. The location is uncertain, though there was a meat market around that time period at 107 South Main (currently Midwest Nutrition).

This wonderful photograph of the Salfer & Ulmen meat market in Cuba City is courtesy of the Ulmen family. I believe that August Ulmen is on the left, John Salfer on the right, and perhaps John's son Victor beside him, but if any family members can provide better identifications, please share!

 

This note in The Galena Tribune (February 14, 1906) indicates that the gentlemen were operating another business in town before opening the butcher shop.

 

John Salfer, an Austrian immigrant, appears to have operated the business with his brother-in-law, August Ulmen. Prior to setting up shop in Cuba City, Salfer had operated the Five Points saloon and restaurant in Dubuque, and before that, a hotel in the Mankato, Minnesota area. Ulmen was a Mankato native who spent time in the West before joining his sister and brother-in-law in Cuba City.

By 1910, Salfer and Ulmen had both moved west with their families. John Salfer and his wife, Theresa, continued to have a local connection, however. Their daughter, Agnes, married Cuba City native, Leo Conlon, and the Salfers are buried in the St. Rose Catholic Cemetery.